An Airlift for Mumbai

Even residents in Mumbai often mistakenly assume that the city has two airports. There is, in fact, only one with two terminals, T1 and T2, the former largely reserved for domestic flights. They share one runway. They handle 50 million passengers per year; for a metropolis of Mumbai’s size, it is not enough. Just how much below capacity can be seen in the sheer scale of the new airport inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 9. The Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA) will, when all its phases are ready in 2036, cater to 90 million passengers. Its first phase becomes operational in December and will have a capacity to cater to 20 million passengers. Spread over 11 kilometres, NMIA will start with one runway. Another will later be added and altogether there will be four terminals. It is one of the largest airports that have been built from scratch and will have bus routes, rail and metro rail connections integrated with not just the metropolis but the rest of the state too. Most of all, it will be an enormous impetus to the growth of Mumbai as the heart of Indian business with its wide embrace. As Modi posted on X after the inauguration, “Through this new airport, farmers of Maharashtra will now be connected to supermarkets in Europe and the Middle East. This means that farmers’ fresh produce like fruits, vegetables, flowers and the catch from fishermen will reach global markets faster. This airport will also reduce export costs for small and medium industries in the surrounding areas, and will attract more investment, and create new enterprises and industries.” The airport has been built at an investment of Rs 19,650 crore and will have a number of firsts for India. Like an Automated People Mover (APM), a system for passengers to easily transit between its four terminals. It is also going to be connected by water taxis. Besides passengers, NMIA will also transport 3.25 million metric tonnes of cargo every year. (By Madhavankutty Pillai) Newsmaker Jilly Cooper: Sex Appeal The bonkbuster queen was a very English phenomenon IF MILLS & Boon novels are a rite of passage in the lives of most young women, then the books of Dame Jilly Cooper (1937-2025) are a lifelong affair. The ‘Queen of Bonkbusters’ had an adoring public which devoured her colourful escapades, set mostly in the fictional county of Rutshire, where horses, dogs and highborn men of particularly cruel disposition lived in a state of permanent excitement. Rupert Campbell- Black was one of the heroes of the series of bonkbusters known as the Rutshire Chronicles, and is said to be loosely based on Queen Camilla’s former husband Andrew Parker Bowles. Campbell-Black had a love-hate relationship with horses and women, although one doesn’t quite know which came first. With such delicious titles such as Jump!, Mount!, and Tackle!, the books recounted his fictional triumphs. These included winning an Olympic Gold in show jumping, becoming Conservative MP, Minister of Sport, and owning a football club. Pretty much the ideal lifecycle of a toff. Cooper’s women were no wilting wallflowers, and enjoyed sex just as much as the men did, or perhaps more, and all bore posh names such as Octavia, Arabella or Serena. Not for them the coyness associated with women and sex. In the bedroom, or the great outdoors, everywhere was fair game. Literary critics may have scoffed at her but Dame Jilly, as she became known as, was beloved for her open appreciation of life, animal and human, and how they meet and mate. (By Kaveree Bamzai) Noisemaker Khawaja Asif: Comic Relief Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif who, when asked by an interviewer for proof that Indian jets were shot down during Operation SIndoor, famously said the evidence is on “social media”, is at it again. There is high chance of war between India and Pakistan he recently proffered, expressing confidence of Pakistan’s success. The assertions are comical because, despite being defence minister, Asif has no clue about military matters and most probably reads of senior postings in the news. His efforts to keep the public morale up are more than undone by the Pakistan army’s disregard for civilian authority. Ideas Quantum Physics The Nobel Prize in Physics this year went to a trio of researchers for their work in the field of quantum mechanics. John Clarke, Michel H Devoret and John M Martinis were awarded the prize for “the discovery of macroscopic quantum mechanical tunnelling and energy quantisation in an electric circuit.” The realm of quantum mechanics is known to depict strange properties. Small collections of elementary particles like atoms and photons, for instance, can move through a barrier even if it does not have enough energy to do so, something that is referred to as quantum tunneling. Another property of subatomic particles is that they can gain or lose energy only in fixed, discrete amounts, a phenomenon known as the quantisation of energy. It was thought that these properties could not be observed in systems large enough to see with the naked eye. The new laureates changed that with a series of experiments they conducted on an electrical circuit chip. They studied the chip with a circuit that was capable of conducting current with no electrical resistance. The current was “trapped” in a state of flow without any voltage. The researchers however observed that the current went from a state of zero-voltage to one of nonzero-voltage, evidence of the phenomenon of quantum tunneling. Their work underlies the advanced microchips present in many technologies today. It has also been essential for attempts underway to build quantum computers which could compute at speeds impossible with classical computers. Money Mantra Planning A Portfolio Be bullish but selective and watchful WHEN MANY BANKS, NBFCs, and auto companies report good quarterly updates, it is easy to feel that the market will keep rising. A better approach is to slow down, look at what is driving these numbers, and decide where earnings can stay strong for longer. Start with financials. The key signals are simple: loans are growing, bad loans are not rising much, and costs are under control. Over the next few quarters, watch how fast deposits grow compared with loans. If deposit growth keeps up and the cost of deposits stops rising, bank margins can stabilise. Also track slippages and credit costs; if they stay low, return ratios hold up. Fee income from cards, payments, and wealth products helps when margins are under pressure. Move to autos. The recent updates suggest demand is healthy: passenger vehicles are holding up, two-wheelers are improving as rural incomes recover, and certain parts of commercial vehicles benefit from freight and infrastructure activity. What matters from here is not one festival season, but whether demand can continue without heavy discounts. Keep an eye on input costs; if commodities remain stable, companies can protect margins. Now, valuations. Good news is often priced in quickly in India. To reduce the risk of buying at the top, look for companies where earnings upgrades are still likely. In banks and NBFCs, that can come from better cost-to-income ratios and lower credit costs. In autos and ancillaries, it can come from new model launches, capacity additions, or a shift to premium products. If a stock has already run up on the update, it can be sensible to wait for a pullback rather than chase it. A simple portfolio plan is a barbell. On one side, hold high-quality private banks and select retail-focused NBFCs with strong funding and steady asset quality. On the other side, hold auto OEMs with clear product pipelines and ancillaries linked to premiumisation, safety, and electronics. Keep some cash for volatility. (By Ramesh Singh) Son Takes Mother to Work There are few moments that are perhaps as heartwarming as taking your parents, who have struggled through their lives to give you a leg-up in your professional career, on a tour of your workplace. One such video went viral recently when an Indian product manager at YouTube in their San Francisco office took his mother to his office. The video, posted on Instagram, shows Abhijay Vuyyuru proudly guiding his beaming mother through Google’s iconic Bay View campus, having her pose in front of the colorful Google logo, exploring the vibrant workspace and its quirky perks like massage chairs, before the two settle into a sunlit cafeteria for a simple meal. The mother looks both thrilled and proud. And through the video, Vuyyuru points out the many sacrifices she made for him. It’s a simple video, and it unsurprisingly melted hearts and racked up thousands of views and shares.

An Airlift for Mumbai

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